Earl Greyson sits at the bus bench, his duffel at his feet and a cigarette in his hand. He wishes he can just drive to his job but he hasn’t touch the wheel of a car ever since the night when he drunkenly plowed into a street fair killing one and injuring over a dozen people. He was promptly arrested the moment the hospital gave him a clean bill of health and was given a sentence of a decade in prison.

“Spend long and hard to reflect on what you’ve done, Mr. Greyson,” were the judge’s final words before handcuffs were clasped around his wrists and shackles around his ankles.

Indeed, Earl thought long and hard and very much regretted his decision to get behind the wheel that night. I should not had gone to the bar that night, no matter how hard my heart was aching from her betrayal, the thought kept running through his head as he replayed that night over and over as he laid on the cot in his cell.

When he was at last paroled, he promised himself that he would walk the straight and narrow from the moment he left prison.

Seeing the bus approach, Earl grabs the duffel and suddenly notices the black and white tabby watching him at his feet. He brings the cigarette to his lips and inhales one last time before throwing the cigarette on the ground and stamping it out. “Why, hello little fella,” he greets the tabby, who replies with a meow, “well, off to work, those pink flamingoes won’t feed themselves, you know.”

Whatdoyousee